Thunderstorm
by ladyd10
Summary: Pre season 1 one shot between two relatively new friends during a thunderstorm.
_**Thunderstorm**_

Calleigh leaned back in her chair in the Miami Dade Crime Lab break room and sighed, lifting the steaming mug of Cafe Cubano to her lips and sipping. Her eyes were glued to the almost floor to ceiling window in front of her. They sky was steely gray and brief flashes of light flared every now and then, afterward punctuated by a low rumble.

The door opened behind her and Tim Speedle entered, going to the refrigerator and pulling out a Mountain Dew. He popped the top and leaned back against the counter, watching his co-worker for a long moment before speaking. "It's gonna pour any minute."

She replied without looking away from the window. "I know."

"Shift ends in half an hour."

"Yeah." she sighed. "It's going to thunderstorm."

Speed came to sit in a chair near her, intrigued. He'd hardly known Calleigh Duquesne for a year now, but she piqued his curiosity. He didn't know tons about her, but he was already looking on her as a little sister of sorts. She was younger than he was, he knew that. And she came from New Orleans, well, NOPD. He'd heard from Megan that she was from some small town in the northeast of Louisiana. He'd already teased her, calling it Bugscuffle. She referred to it as Bugsville, but grinned at him anyway. "So, you planning on sitting there all evening?"

She glanced at him. "A bit."

"Why don't you clock out and get home before the storm hits?" he asked.

She took a long drink of the coffee the new guy, Delko, made a few hours ago. "There's no fun in that. I love watching thunderstorms and this window is fantastic."

Speed snorted. "Seriously?"

She looked away from the giant window. "Yeah, I really do. I don't know, I mean, I always have." She sipped again and then set the mug down, kicking off her shoes and curling her legs up into the seat. "I had this big bay window in my bedroom, you know, the kind with a window seat. When those spring storms rolled in over the fields it was so beautiful. I could sit in that window seat and watch for hours."

Speed was quiet for a long while, trying to picture what his friend was saying. He tried to see green fields and the gray skies and the rain coming down. But, being from Queens, New York didn't give him much of a frame of reference. "I dunno, Calleigh. I just can't see it. I get dirty streets, ruined baseball games, flooded basements and wet trees. It's kind of depressing."

"Let me show you," she said and suddenly grabbed his hand and dragged him right to the window. "See that compass point mosaic down there? How beautifully does it glisten when it rains? Or those palm trees? Aren't they amazingly green? They are even brighter with the rain." Low thunder rumbled in the distance as the first drops began to fall. "And the smell after it rains. Everything smells fresh and new."

Speed found himself completely bemused. He still didn't get her enthusiasm, but he was enjoying it, although he would never admit to it. "Yeah, I dunno."

She dropped his hand and raised an eyebrow at him. "Sit down and watch the thunderstorm with me. I know you have nothing planned. You told Delko you didn't. Sit."

Chastened, he sat. "Okay. What's so special about thunderstorms?"

"Everything."

"You gotta give me more, Cal."

She sighed and ran her hand through her waist length blonde hair. "Okay. I will tell you about thunderstorms in ….Bugsville. They were always special; at least they were to me. The storm would come growling and rumbling across the fields. I could watch it roll in, the cumulonimbus clouds were always so clear. Do you know that they can reach 50,000 feet or higher? Anyway, they were just like this magical force field that approached. There was always this utter stillness before the storm hit. Like the earth was holding her breath. The air all day was hot and humid and...well, gross. Sticky, almost like everything had a fine coating of damp sugar on it. Nobody really wanted to play, not running games, anyway. I mostly holed up in my treehouse or room, with the window wide open, and read until the storm would start rolling in on those glorious clouds. The lightning would start flashing and the thunder would growl and rumble and everything would go a lovely dark gray. The humidity would spike and then...the rain would come lashing down, lightning flashing overhead and thunder roaring. The wind would pick up and the temperature and humidity would drop. Cooling breezes would wash through my room and after the storm moved on, everything would feel cleaner, fresher, at peace. Within an hour of the storm ending, there would be cold worms everywhere and folks would go on out and grab them up as fast as you please for fish bait. The garden would glisten with the leftover rain drops. When the wind blew, the trees would shower you with it. It was just always something exciting and refreshing."

"Wow," Speed breathed. He hadn't meant to, but he could actually see what she meant. He looked over to the window as the rain began in earnest and the lightning began to flash. Maybe thunderstorms were kind of cool after all.


End file.
